Work in Progress

The world climate conference in Paris is finally over.   The delegates listened to some feel good remarks by world leaders and relaxed a little after haggling over everything from responsibility for climate change to punctuation  of the conference's final document.  Everyone is going home to start the harder job of forging a consensus among the world's population that everyone needs to do their part to avoid a climate catastrophe in coming decades and centuries.  How they will sell the bitter pill of fossil fuel avoidance and reliance on new technologies is one problem.  How to get the wealthy, developed nations to share with the less fortunate is the other.  Despite President Obama's stirring remarks to the attendees, he must now do battle with a know nothing republican party whose raison d'etre has and continues to be relentless opposition to anything he proposes or any cause he espouses.  Powerful media antagonists, including Faux News and Rush Limbaugh will do little to educate their benighted viewers and listeners or will actively disinform them of the very real results on the climate of doing nothing.  With upwards of 97% of scientists convinced of the man made origins of climate disruption, we can't afford to kick the can down the road for the next generation to deal with.  How the present population of the planet behaves over the next 50 years will probably influence life on the Blue Planet for many generations.